Miracle Babies Help Celebrate Hi-tech Birthday

June 3, 1985|By John Gholdston of The Sentinel Staff

Several hundred children of various ages, racial and ethnic backgrounds and physical abilities gathered with their families at Orange County's Turkey Lake Park over the weekend to celebrate the one thing they have in common.

They were born too soon and spent the first precarious stages of their lives at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Orlando Regional Medical Center.

The event Saturday marked the 10th anniversary of the unit, one of only 10 in Florida. The highly specialized center has cared for more than 4,500 babies, most born prematurely.

Neonatal care has developed extensively over the past decade, helping tiny babies breathe and overcome many of the complications inherent in premature births.

Ten years ago a premature baby weighing under 2 1/2 pounds was generally given less than a 20 percent chance of survival and surviving babies had a high likelihood of physical or mental handicaps.

Today, statistics indicate those tiny babies have about a 50 percent survival rate and premature babies weighing more than 2 1/2 pounds have a better than 90 percent chance of survival.

The gathering Saturday demonstrated the percentage of premature babies with retardation or physical handicaps has dropped greatly.

Although a few of the children wore braces, were confined to wheelchairs or were still requiring artificial life support, most took full advantage of the pony rides, train ride and other activities set up for them.

''It is exciting for us to see so many of our children now doing so well,'' said Dr. Gregor Alexander, director of the neonatal unit. ''This is what we work for, to help these children who have all been such fighters, get all they can out of life.''

Alexander's unit is connected to the other nine public neonatal units in Florida through a phone network that monitors the patient census in all the units every eight hours.

If a baby in Orlando needs care but all of the beds at the ORMC unit are filled, a phone call to the network would reveal where the baby could be sent for help.

Almost a third of the babies in the Orlando unit have been transferred from other hospitals that lacked either the space or the technology to deal with the problem.

ORMC officially is able to handle a maximum of 16 intensive care babies at one time but it generally has more because of a statewide shortage of beds.

The hospital drew national attention on Christmas day when three sets of premature twins were born within three hours of each other, putting a severe strain on the unit.

''It is painful to have to refuse a baby anytime,'' Alexander said. ''We have the knowledge and the means to save those babies, but not the room. That is the most depressing situation we have.''

ORMC's unit accepts a higher percentage of tiny babies than any other unit in the system and consequently has a longer average stay for its patients. Most babies are in the hospital for 30 days.

The Orlando hospital also boasts the highest survival rate in the state. Since it began operation in July 1979, the unit has served about 4,500 babies, a hospital spokesman said.

About 10 percent of those babies were full-term infants who had some serious complication requiring intensive care. The rest were born from a few days to several months before their due dates.

Hope Hofmann, one of the first and smallest babies cared for in the unit, spent four of her first five months in hospitals after her birth on July 28, 1975. She was three months premature and weighed 1 pound, 9 ounces.

She was at the picnic with her mother and 11-year-old sister. Except for having lost sight in one eye as a result of complications after her birth, she is a normal, healthy child.

''We know we really overcame the odds,'' said her mother, Barbara, 38. ''They told us she would probably not live and would probably be retarded if she did but here she is. I thank the people at the unit and the Lord that she's with us.''

Unit nurses honored Alexander at the picnic with gifts of adult-size diapers, a baby bottle, a stocking cap used to keep babies warm, and a Cabbage Patch ''Preemie'' doll.

Former state Rep. Dick Batchelor, introduced by Alexander as ''a great friend to the unit,'' spoke briefly during the proceedings and said two state goals in 1985 should be to reduce infant mortality and to increase the number of neonatal units so no baby is denied treatment.

The hospital is completing plans for a children's hospital that will include an expanded neonatal intensive care unit. The new project will be named in honor of golfer Arnold Palmer, one of the major donors to the project.